Showing posts with label democracy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label democracy. Show all posts

Sunday, January 22, 2017

The Women's March

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It was epic, it was sweeping, it was historic, and it helped millions of men, women, and children around the world get over the worst election in American history.







Will it change the fact that Donald Trump is President? No. Will it send a message to conservatives that we will not sit down and shut up and let them run the show? Yes! So at least there is hope that someone is paying attention.

From New York Mag: "Don't Let Anybody Tell You the Marches Didn't Matter
It matters that Trump drew a sparse crowd to inaugural festivities that he had billed beforehand as a historic, Jacksonian uprising of The People. And it matters much more that millions of Americans came out on a Saturday to register their protest. It is not only catharsis, though catharsis is better than depression. The message has been heard by the political class, Republican and Democratic alike.







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Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Nazi Trump Demands Sieg Heil from Crowd - But Not Racist Of Course

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Previous Related Posts:
Trump and the Klan on Super Tuesday Eve
Trump Triumphant So Far
Trump Jumps the Shark With Facist Ideas
Ted Cruz Dreams of a Jesse Helms Army
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Is Trump a full-on racist? He spent most of 2012 attacking President Obama with vacuous Birtherisms, demanding to see his "real" birth certificate -- from Africa.

But oh no, most Republicans wouldn't say that is racist! Is it racism if most Republicans agree with you, or at least when Sheriff Joe Arpaio agrees with you? He's an expert on race relations and minorities, right?



Then again, last December, Trump said the families of Muslim criminals should be punished as a form of retribution. But again, Lord no, said the pundits clutching their pearls - that doesn't make Trump a racist anymore than wanting to deport ALL illegal aliens no matter what their status, or calling all Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists. Heavens, no - how could that make someone a racist?

Last week, Trump got an endorsement from a real undisputed racist - David Duke - ex-Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. But oh, goodness me, that wasn't Trump's fault, even when he wouldn't disavow them on national TV just before the Super Tuesday elections. Eventually he DID disavow Duke, so all is well, nothing to see here.



Well, how about this: in the last week, Trump - still the frontrunner of the Republican Party for President of the United States - has started asking the supporters at his events to stand and raise their right hands to swear they will vote for him. You know, like Hitler's loyal did during his speeches. It's not subtle at all, even to the now panicked pundits who let this crap go on for so long.

Trump is making a big show of getting a "Sieg Heil" from citizens of the United States while the whole world is watching, and our allies are chilled to the bone by what they see. And we should scared be too, whether you think Trump is Hitler, Mussolini, or just a big rich doofus obsessed with power - really what difference does it make? He's dangerous.


























Abraham Foxman, ex-leader of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League via RawStory
“As a Jew who survived the Holocaust, to see an audience of thousands of people raising their hands in what looks like the ‘Heil Hitler’ salute is about as offensive, obnoxious and disgusting as anything I thought I would ever witness in the United States of America,” said Foxman, who was born in Poland in 1940 and was saved from the Nazis by his Catholic nanny.
He told the newspaper (Times of Israel) that the gesture’s symbolism was obvious and troubling.
“It is a fascist gesture,” Foxman said. “He is smart enough — he always tells us how smart he is — to know the images that this evokes. Instead of asking his audience to pledge allegiance to the United States of America, which in itself would be a little bizarre, he’s asking them to swear allegiance to him.”

From "The Moment of Truth: We Must Stop Trump" Op-Ed by Harvard Professor Danielle Allen in Washington Post
Like any number of us raised in the late 20th century, I have spent my life perplexed about exactly how Hitler could have come to power in Germany. Watching Donald Trump’s rise, I now understand. Leave aside whether a direct comparison of Trump to Hitler is accurate. That is not my point. My point rather is about how a demagogic opportunist can exploit a divided country.
. . . One can see both of these phenomena unfolding now. The first shows itself, for instance, when journalists cover every crude and cruel thing that comes out of Trump’s mouth and thereby help acculturate all of us to what we are hearing. Are they not just doing their jobs, they will ask, in covering the Republican front-runner? Have we not already been acculturated by 30 years of popular culture to offensive and inciting comments? Yes, both of these things are true. But that doesn’t mean journalists ought to be Trump’s megaphone. ...
. . . The only way to stop him, then, is to achieve just that kind of coordination across party lines and across divisions within parties. We have reached that moment of truth.
Republicans, you cannot count on the Democrats to stop Trump. I believe that Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic nomination, and I intend to vote for her, but it is also the case that she is a candidate with significant weaknesses, as your party knows quite well. The result of a head-to-head contest between Clinton and Trump would be unpredictable. Trump has to be blocked in your primary.


Dana Milbank on "Trump's Flirtation With Facism
So it has come to this: The front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, at a campaign rally in Orlando Saturday, leading supporters in what looked very much like a fascist salute.
“Can I have a pledge? A swearing?” Trump asked, raising his right hand and directing his followers to do the same. He then led them in pledging allegiance — not to the flag, but to Trump, for which they stand and for whom they vowed to vote.
. . . The Germans, too, find him dangerous — and they should know. Der Spiegel, the German newsmagazine, last month called Trump “the world’s most dangerous man” and leader of a “hate-filled authoritarian movement” who “inflames tensions against ethnic minorities …while ignoring democratic conventions.”

Saturday Night Live: Nazi KKK Members for Donald Trump






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Sunday, May 18, 2014

Wolfeboro NH Police Commish: Pres. Obama "Meets and Exceeds Criteria" for the N-Word - UPDATE: He Resigned

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The town of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, wants to fire their Police Commissioner. He was overheard in a restaurant saying that every time he turned on the TV he was sick of seeing "That f***ing N***er" - meaning President Obama. A local woman reported what she heard to the Police Commission of the town, and Commissioner Robert Copeland made it worse by refusing to apologize because Obama fit "all his criteria" for being a "N***er."

Free Speech is fine, but as Donald Sterling and Cliven Bundy recently learned, coming out as an unapologetic racist has consequences. And people just don't find Archie Bunker funny anymore. And while it's true that many old, angry white men have a problem with "The Negro" in the White House, Copeland is an elected official who runs their police department and therefore should be held to a higher standard because of the fairness that should be inherent in his job.

These folks don't want a town that's like the movie "In the Heat of the Night." I will update this post as things unfold in the coming week.

UPDATE: Sheriff Copeland has resigned!

From the Portsmouth NH Patch
The Wolfeboro police commissioner who used the "n word" in reference to President Obama has verbally told the police chief and town he has resigned.
Robert Copeland has yet to submit a written resignation, which Wolfeboro Town Manager David Owen is looking forward to seeing to begin to put the controversy behind the town.
"We'll be very happy to get this into our past," Owen said in a phone interview with Patch. "Unfortunately, I think the town's image and our brand may have been tarred a little over this."
Owen said he received two calls, one from the police chief and the other from the chairman of the police commission, informing him that Copeland had resigned.
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WMUR New Hampshire
WOLFEBORO, N.H. —A police commissioner in a predominantly white New Hampshire town said he won't apologize for calling President Barack Obama the N-word, and he sat with his arms crossed while angry residents at a meeting called for his resignation on Thursday.

Town resident Jane O'Toole, who moved to Wolfeboro four months ago, said she overheard Copeland say the slur at a restaurant in March and wrote to the town manager about it. Copeland, in an email to her, acknowledged using the slur in referring to the president and said he will not apologize.

"It's not like I was eavesdropping. Mr. Copeland was being very loud," O'Toole said.

Copeland was silent during Thursday night's meeting. He was asked to resign and said nothing. He did say plenty in a letter to O'Toole after she wrote to his bosses about his racial slurs.

"The letter really took the wind out of my sails, really," O'Toole said.

"I believe I did use the 'N' word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse (sic)," Copeland said in the email. "For this, I do not apologize -- he meets and exceeds my criteria for such."

This video of the Wolfeboro Police Commission Meeting at the local public library should be required viewing for all Civics and Government students in this country. This is what a "grassroots" movement really is - standing up to a Racist, telling him to resign and get out of their town government.


From the Wolfeboro Town Selectmen:

STATEMENT REGARDING POLICE COMMISSIONER ROBERT COPELAND
The Wolfeboro Board of Selectmen (the Town’s governing body) and Town Manager (its chief executive officer) are appalled at the language used by Commissioner Copeland relative to President Obama, and have publicly stated that we find it reprehensible and totally inconsistent with the Town’s open and welcoming character. Mr. Copeland’s views are in no way representative of the Board of Selectmen of the Town of Wolfeboro, its administration, or the men and women of the Wolfeboro Police Department.
The Wolfeboro Police Commission is a separately elected Town board that does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Board of Selectmen or Town Manager, and there is no provision in New Hampshire State Law or the Town’s ordinances that would enable us to remove Mr. Copeland from his elected position on the Police Commission for his egregious behavior.
Therefore, we are hopeful that Mr. Copeland will accede to the public outcry and finally do the right thing and resign from his elected position to save the Town any further embarrassment of his making.
David Owen, Town Manager

Boston Herald - Mitt Romney Rips Copeland
The Wolfeboro, N.H., police commissioner who has stood by his comment calling President Obama a racial slur is facing a growing cascade of calls to step down, including from the tiny lakeside town’s most famous summer resident — one-time Obama opponent Mitt Romney.
“The vile epithet used and confirmed by the commissioner has no place in our community,” the former Bay State governor, who owns a home in the popular Granite State vacation spot, said in a statement to the Herald. “He should apologize and resign.”



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